HUMAN HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA TRANSPLANTED IN NUDE-MICE - A RELEVANTEXPERIMENTAL-MODEL TO ASSESS TUMORAL DESTRUCTION BY ALCOHOLIZATION

Intratumor ethanol injection was studied in the treatment of small hep atocellular carcinoma (HCC). One of the major drawbacks of this techni que remains the lack of objective information about its efficiency and the practical conditions of injection. To ensure accurate evaluation of alcoholization, we developed a model based on the tumor obtained af ter subcutaneous injection of human hepatoma cell lines into nude mice . Each of three cell lines (Hep G2, Hep 3B, PLC/PRF/5) was tested on 2 4 mice. A total of 0.1 mi of a solution containing 5 x 10(6) cells was injected under the abdominal skin of a male nude mouse weighing 30 g. The Hep G2 cell line appeared to be the most suitable for the model. It enabled us to obtain tumors of 20 mm in diameter within a mean dela y (m +/- SD) of 45 +/- 16 days (range: 29-60) with only a 25% failure rate. No visceral spreading of the carcinoma was noticed and the tumor s obtained, similar to human HCC, were convenient to be measured, moni tored, and treated by alcoholization. To validate this model for alcoh olization, 38 tumors ranging in diameter from 10 to 20 mm were treated using either a unique centrotumoral injection (n = 27) or five cross- shaped injections (n = 11). Intratumor absolute ethanol injection resu lted in tumoral necrosis which was easily quantified as a percentage o f the tumor volume, using a semiquantitative method. It is concluded t hat the Hep G2 cell line transplanted in nude mice resulted in a relev ant model to assess tumoral destruction by alcoholization. (C) 1994 Ac ademic Press, Inc.